China blasts ‘unfounded smears’ as Trump’s election claims threaten diplomatic thaw

US President Donald Trump launched a sharp attack on China late on Thursday (Washington time), accusing Beijing of interfering in US elections in a move that has strained a fragile thaw in ties and cast doubt on future high-level engagements.In a prime-time address from the White House that lasted nearly 30 minutes, Trump accused China of orchestrating “what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history”.He claimed Beijing stole 220 million US voter files, including names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data. He also accused intelligence agencies of downplaying the scale of China’s “sinister” meddling.